The space traveling science-fiction video game franchise “Mass Effect” has been hounded by a system that favored good and evil choices by gamers using a Paragon/Renegade morality system.
So if gamers would push their playable characters in either of those two directions, they would be granted more powerful abilities. But those who shall take the neutral path or the in-between choice will be left with fewer options to help them battle their enemies.
Apparently, the fourth game in the video game series, “Mass Effect: Andromeda” shall do away with not giving many powerful abilities to those gamers who will make the neutral path, reports Digital Trends.
It was game creative director Mac Walters of developer BioWare who confirmed that “Mass Effect: Andromeda” shall feature shades of gray for gamers which have become the in-thing among current video games.
In fact, such is now being seen in the gameplay of “The Walking Dead” by Telltale Games, “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt” by CD Projekt Red, and BioWare’s latest game “Dragon Age: Inquisition.” All these games have been highly lauded for their in-depth storytelling and meaningful choices that it provides to gamers.
BioWare will also be using the same approach to “Mass Effect: Andromeda” which means that gamers can actually shape the gameplay story with their own choices.
Walters say that the development team at BioWare has been looking for other ways to engage more of those shades of gray and less about being obviously right or obviously wrong. He said that the key is giving gamers real choices, notes Games Radar.
Expects better sales
“Mass Effect” is known to be very popular among gamers but it is not as good as the other games in the stable of game publisher Electronic Arts (EA) in terms of sales.
But EA expects that things will change for the better for the franchise with the release of the fourth game of the series “Mass Effect: Andromeda” on the PlayStation 4, the Xbox One, and the PC in March next year.
Andrew Wilson, CEO of EA, announced during the company’s investor day that “Mass Effect: Andromeda” could go on to become the biggest one for the franchise so far.
Wilson said that the new “Mass Effect” game will have grown in the category of role-playing games and break beyond the franchise’s core gamer audiences.
He said that they have seen other games in the category do such and they honestly believe that “Mass Effect: Andromeda” will do that.
A crowd technology development
EA executive vice president Patrick Soderlund shared a little detail about “Mass Effect: Andromeda” using a crowd technology developed for “Rory McIlroy PGA Tour” which has been adopted by BioWare to have big crowds that gamers can walk through.
The same technology was used in “Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst” to have a large crowd on the street layer. Reports also have it that the other game teams within EA will also be adopting the same technology.
Some fans are getting worried that there might be a delay again especially considering that game developer BioWare has yet to make an announcement regarding the exact release date of the game on the gaming consoles.
However, Greg Zeschuk, retired co-founder of BioWare, recently issued a statement saying that fans should not be wary at all because their wait for the highly anticipated release of “Mass Effect: Andromeda” is going to be completely worth it.
Zeschuk said that he is also an ordinary game enthusiast who is waiting for the game but he is quite confident that the long development process will be good for the game, having known the development team working on it for so long.